Sangeetha Lakshminarayanan
Founder, Ex-President & Chairperson of the Board
Sangeetha founded and served as Chairman & President of Aram Sei from its inception in January 2012. Prior to this, she had been volunteering and leading several portfolios in marketing, operations, sponsorships, projects as part of the bay area chapter of Udavum Karangal, Indiaspora, HSSV and Society dogs. Sangeetha has been a leader in defining Aram Sei’s global vision, working with volunteers and partners in driving the organization’s growth strategy in support of its mission. She has championed an inclusive culture throughout our network of volunteers, partners and well wishers. Sangeetha holds a Masters in Public Administration and heads Global Mobility at Bank of the West, a BNP Paribas company. Other Community Involvement: Foster mom at The Perfect Dog Rescue – rescuing one fur friend at a time!
Karen Kagoo
Co- Founder, President
Karen Kagoo leads Product Operations for Search Ads at Google. She is interested in solving operational and organizational challenges. As a co-founder of Aram Sei she has held multiple roles in marketing, event management and volunteer engagement. She has also led Aram Sei community groups as part of the annual GoogleServe month. Outside of work she is a fitness enthusiast and credits her marathon coaching job to be the one where she learnt a lot about leading effective teams. She has an MS in Electrical Engineering from UCSC and a MBA from INSEAD.
Venkat Satagopan
Chairperson of Board
Venkat Satagopan is an avid photographer and has volunteered his services for several non-profit community events in the Bay Area. He joined Aram Sei in 2014 and has held multiple roles in event management and marketing. He has played a leadership role in organizing and delivering several of Aram Sei’s fundraising events. He feels honored to be a part of the Aram Sei family and is looking forward to working with partners and supporters in serving our community. Venkat has a PhD in engineering from Missouri S&T and works at NVIDIA Corporation.
Bala Lakshminarayanan
Board Member
Bala Lakshminarayanan moved to the Bay Area in 2011 and joined a group of volunteers in founding Aram Sei in 2012. Over the years, the group has witnessed an incredible growth in the organization as we have reached beneficiaries around the globe. At Aram Sei, Bala has taken on roles in event management, project management and legal compliance, and has served as Secretary. His time with this organization gives him a sense of personal fulfilment and helps him give back to the society at large. In his other life, Bala is the VP of Engineering at SMT and leads efforts for sports data and graphics visualizations. If you have watched any American sports on television, you have seen what his team does.
Sudhan Sadhanand
Board Member
Sudhan is a tech enthusiast and with Aram Sei he can gladly say he has been able to apply them for a greater cause. He started volunteering with Aram Sei since inception. Now after all these years, he feels fortunate to have volunteered alongside fellow Aram Sei’ers from diverse backgrounds on all the various fundraisers and Community Outreach events. Aram Sei has provided him with unique opportunities to partner with various creative teams around the bay area and it has been an eye opening experience to see the long lasting effects of like minded and coordinated efforts. It has indeed been a very fulfilling journey so far and one he hopes to continue in the years to come. Sudhan is a software engineer by profession and works at Cisco.
Vinod Pagalone
Board Member
Vinod Pagalone initially started volunteering to help charity fundraisers with his skills in photography which he pursues as a hobby and quickly became aware of how small acts of kindness and generosity can go a long way towards the betterment of someone in need. He is a founding member of Aram Sei and serves on the project selection committee. He is keen on identifying grassroots charities that are making a difference in the community and supporting them in a manner that would allow them to sustain and grow. Vinod has a masters degree in Electrical Engineering and is the lead for productization and deployment of design features that aid in testing of Integrated Chips at Nvidia Corporation.
Bonita Bhaskaran
Secretary to Board
Bonita has never shied away from helping others all her life. It is one of those values that was imbibed in her since childhood. The urge to pay it forward was made stronger by a few loving hearts that she met early on in life. Bonita’s Aram Sei journey alongside her family, has been an enriching one filled with diverse roles like Marketing and Operations to anchoring stage events. Over the years, she also enjoyed leading SPARK’s Debate & Music segments and loved putting together a one-of-a-kind music fundraiser in collaboration with the Trinity Center for Music. With a PhD in Computer Engineering, Bonita has worked on several Methodology & R&D projects at NVIDIA Corporation that help in testing chips efficiently. Outside of work, parenting and volunteering, Bonita is passionate about the pursuit of her hobbies with her partners in crime daughters, which include holistic living, Carnatic Music and culinary experimentation.
Kaushik Narayanun
Treasurer
Kaushik Narayanun started his volunteer journey as a member of Interact Club during his middle school years. Having benefited from the goodwill of others to support his education, Kaushik has always believed in giving back to the impoverished in the community, especially the young. Liberation of the economically downtrodden through education is a passion that has driven Kaushik to engage in various volunteering opportunities including Board roles. Since co-founding Aram Sei, Kaushik has donned roles in Event Management, Project selection, Operations, Fundraising and is now heading Finance. Kaushik believes that giving back should be a lifestyle choice, one he hopes to instill in his young son and other youngsters. Kaushik Narayanun is a Senior Director of Engineering at Nvidia.